All of the roses with September in their names were used as thumbnails for the September chat threads of earlier years, so I've chosen High Hopes as the thumbnail photo for this month.

September is when many of us start looking forward to next year with high hopes and start planning our projects and purchases for next season in earnest. Local nurseries are putting this season's roses on sale at clearance prices and mail-order nurseries are updating their sites in preparation for orders for the new season.

Rosa 'High Hopes' also has personal meaning to me. Last year, for the first time in more than 30 years, I didn't order any new roses. I was feeling so weak and decrepit that I expected this year to be my last year of gardening. Some new meds have given me back some of my previous strength and energy and have slowed the weight loss, so I'm looking forward to another year or two with high hopes.

Great rose and motto for September. Congrats on winning the August raffle! What will you be getting from Annie's? The one plant I have from there that keeps on giving is Laurentia. I just love it and it does well with the heat I have in my garden. It self spreads and I allow it to do just that. It is a great filler for the "naked canes" on the bottom of rose bushes. It pretty much is gone during the winter (if I recall correctly) but reappears each spring through the fall. The blue star-shaped flowers contrast very well with my pink, purple, maroon and apricot colored roses. Let me see if I can find a picture of it.

Thanks for the suggestion, Mustbnuts. I'm planning to buy perennials to fill the spaces between roses so that I'll have fewer weeds to pull in those spots, and Laurentia sounds like a perfect candidate.

Most of the "sold out" signs are gone and many "back" and "new" roses have been added. I don't know whether the update is finished. So far, there's a suspicious lack of Kordes roses among the "new." Does this mean that Star is now the exclusive distributor of new Kordes roses on this continent? Maybe it just means that the Palatine site will undergo more updating, but if it doesn't, we can only be glad that Palatine is offering "old" Kordes roses the company had resolved not to sell here anymore.

Zuzu!!! You go, girl!!!! I'm so glad your body started behaving and gave you your mojo back!!! I love Palantine roses...and it's good that Americans order from Palantine (I wish Canadians could order from the states), this way Palantine stays in business.

S124 - does borage spread and become unmanageable? I've never seen borage here..does it have an alternate name?

Happy September everyone! I have had a busy Labor Day weekend entertaining friends and family at the lake so I haven't been able to take any pics of my roses but hope to do so today in between cleaning house and waiting for a break in the rain. Our temps have been awesome this week and the roses are enjoying the break from the heat as are the humans lol. I am going to also try to do some light pruning on some of my more unruly roses in hopes of a good fall flush. Hope everyone has a great Labor Day!

Carol, Borage (Borago officinalis) is an annual herb, easy to grow from seeds. For me, it reseeds readily and I pull most of it as it gets ratty looking as the blooms age and the leaves are a real rough texture. You can read all the comments added in the entry below all the images.

Canadian_Rose said:Zuzu!!! You go, girl!!!! I'm so glad your body started behaving and gave you your mojo back!!! I love Palantine roses...and it's good that Americans order from Palantine (I wish Canadians could order from the states), this way Palantine stays in business.

S124 - does borage spread and become unmanageable? I've never seen borage here..does it have an alternate name?

It's an annual, and once the small seed heads have formed and dried around early-middle of summer, I normally pull the plants out and give them a shake which sprinkle the seed around. It comes up again in the fall once there has been a reasonable amount of rain.

It's easy to remove, as the roots don't go too deep, and it's a soft plant, snaps easy in a storm, and is mostly hollow inside. Most farm type animals love it, so if you have cattle, donkeys, horses, sheep (my sisters dog), they would choose Borage over grass. Not sure about chickens, but they will peck at greens.

If your ground freezes heavily in winter, it may kill the plants or seeds, but it's relatively mild where I live, so once I've pulled the big plants out, because after seeding they dry up and look horrible (so throw them over the fence to the neighbours animals !), then a few months later once summer is over and the rain starts and gets cooler, the new plants germinate.

I have to wear gloves and long sleeves when I pull it out, as it gives me a rash, but then most plants rubbed on my skin cause a rash!

It will grow 3 ft or more, but bees love it, and I'm pretty sure bumble bees have a go as well.

John, bumble bees definitely love borage. Here in Tasmania we have your NZ bumble bees because sometime in the 1980s they were 'accidently' released during pollination research. They are very popular here not just because of their ability to pollinate many plants that honey bees miss but because they are so furry and docile that you can stroke them like a pet and they don't mind at all. Lola.

Sue - from seeds. I've never even seen seed packets of Borage. I'll have to look for them.

S124 - thanks! That was a good read!

Lola - I've been stung about 5 times in my life by bumble bees. Every single time it was because I bothered them. I stepped on one, I tried to pick one up (twice!) thinking they were spent flowers (my vision isn't the best ), etc. But I love bees, so I don't mind.
Carol

Carol - Your bumble bees must be more aggressive than the ones we have. I don't know a single person who has been stung by the NZ bumble bees that we have in abundance here. It used to make me squirm when people would stroke them when they were on a flower but I have become quite brave over the years. After a glass of wine I can stroke them myself. After two glasses I want to stroke them all. Lola.

LOL Lola! I would probably stroke them all too after two glasses of wine!

I used to grow Borage, but I kept getting zapped by their thorns (tiny furry ones), so I don't grow it anymore. It is an edible herb and you can have it in salads, etc. Of course, I grew it when I didn't use garden gloves (that lesson has been learned). Probably wouldn't bother me at all now since I use gloves.

Well, time to get out and deadhead a little bit before it gets too hot.

How awesome that your are able to stroke bumblebees Lola! That would never happen here lol, I would be stung for sure and I hate getting stung! I have had my share of bee stings and red wasp stings and they both hurt like heck. The beginning of September has been nice so far here in my part of Texas with some lower temps in the high 80's and low 90's and some rain, my roses are loving it too. I finally feel like I can be out in the garden for more than 30 minutes without having heat exhaustion lol. The only thing that hasn't gotten better are the mosquitoes, they are terrible!

I forgot to add a few pics! This is Star of the Republic, a Pioneer rose from ARE. It's new to my garden this year but so far has been growing and blooming well, it's a little floppy and could use some support but I'm found to see how it does next spring and if it continues to be floppy I may need to move it where it can be next to some kind of support like a small trellis. So far I'm really liking this rose. It has a pretty creamy color and smells really nice too.
My next pic is Duchesse de Brabant after a rain shower.

The black bugs on SotR are what we call Love Bugs, they come out in the gazillions this time of year and are awful. They mate and then lay the eggs in the ground and then the babies hatch the following year and mate and lay eggs etc. I have no idea what they are good for because nothing will eat them because they taste terrible and I'm not sure what they do for the environment and they splat on the front end of your car bumper/hood and windows when your driving and this will actually mess up your paint job if you don't wash them off quickly. I detest the Love Bugs lol